Klarinet Archive - Posting 000392.txt from 2003/02

From: Michael Cudahy <mcudahy@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] mouthpiece recomendations
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 13:03:58 -0500

Kelly,

Thanks so much for your reply! Lots of good information and advice. Since
you ask, I guess I'll describe my situation, and I trust that those who
don't have a burning desire to know all about me will have sense enough
to skip this message.

I am a once-serious clarinet player (started college as a music major
specializing in clarinet, dreamed of auditioning for a major symphony,
etc.) who lost my way as a student of classical music, but never lost my
love of music. I spent most of the last 20 years playing string band
music on mandolin and guitar, with occasional forays into jazz saxophone
on tenor and alto when jazz-playing friends gathered. Now a weird
multiple sclerosis symptom has made my left-hand fingers somewhat numb
and tingly, and I'm finding it very difficult and unpleasant to play the
mandolin, so I've returned to the clarinet, and I'm really enjoying it.
The numbness doesn't impede me too much on clarinet. And I just bought a
soprano sax, which works well for me because I don't need so much
sensitivity in my finger tips on that instrument (it's somewhat like the
modified clarinets with flute-like keys that people on this list were
recently discussing).

I'm playing jazz and swing now with my old string instrument friends
(yes, in keys like E and B and F# minor!) and some classical pieces, like
the Brahms sonatas with a piano-playing friend. I have to confess I've
always been ignorant about mouthpieces. For years, I've been playing
happily on a mouthpiece made by Bob Mario (of North Hollywood, CA) in
1971 that was recommended to me by my then-clarinet teacher, Anthony
Desiderio (of Fullerton, CA). When I began studying at UC Santa Barbara
in 1972, my teacher there asked what kind of mouthpiece I was using. I
said it was made by Bob Mario and he said, "Ah, good; that's the one to
use." But (in my timidity) I never asked him why he said that, or grilled
him on the whats and whys of mouthpieces--missed my opportunity. I do
think it's a fine mouthpiece (though I'd like to compare it to others),
but now that I'm playing more jazz, I thought I might be happier with a
more open sound. It's hard to play my mouthpiece out of tune, so it's
hard to imitate George Lewis' style on Burgundy Street Blues, with the
kind of weird bent notes and swoops and half-flatted thirds he plays so
beautifully. So I want to try some mouthpieces that might be more suited
to jazz/swing/dixieland/drunken-jam-session music. Also, I suspect such
mouthpieces would offer less resistance, and so might make it easier to
double on the soprano sax--less of a drastic adjustment back and forth. I
guess I can kiss my more-or-less well-formed classical embouchure goodbye
if I go this route, but I don't have any major symphony auditions coming
up just now, and I've got lots of opportunities to play the other kind of
music.

Now I live in Menlo Park, near San Francisco. Know of any mouthpiece
makers in these parts? I like your suggestion to find someone local in
order to try lots of different mouthpieces. I never seem to find a very
wide selection when I shop for instruments or accessories in stores. Of
course, I see dozens of products online and in catalogs, and everything
*looks* good, and then the blurbs don't really distinguish between the
different items; they just make everything sound equally fantastic.

Mike Cudahy

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